OH mercy. Australia, a minnow on baseball's world stage, showed no mercy yesterday to a Mexico team bursting with Major League Baseball players in their World Baseball Classic series opener at Foro Sol Stadium, Mexico City.

Australia invoked the mercy rule in its historic 17-7 win, a game in which Australia pounded out a WBC record 22 hits.

For a team that comprises a bunch of youngsters at the bottom of professional baseball's totem pole, the victory spoke volumes for the players' character.

Australian manager Jon Deeble praised his players for staying positive after trailing 7-4 after three innings, executing well and playing with great spirit.

Deeble rated Australia's win as the equal of that against Japan in the 2004 Olympic Games that advanced it to the gold medal game.

"You would have to say this is the best win ever for Australian baseball," Deeble said.

"The win against Japan in the Olympics was great, but the quality of the Mexican players was better. Their starting line-up was all major leaguers.

"It was not just the victory, but the way we stuck to our guns. Our game is all about execution and we stuck to our game plan."

I think it is moderately interesting. Any baseball is better than nothing. There is no ideal time of year to hold this event, and I don't think March is great for it. Some of the rather dubious country-affiliations are ridiculous. A-Rod was going to play for the Dominican Republic, even though he wasn't born there. There are a bunch of guys with Italian names playing for Team Italy, most of whom have probably never been there, much less born there.

It would be nice to see all the players actually playing (Pujols can't play for insurance reasons, for one), but it is more interesting than spring training. The qualifying procedure is a bit like soccer which loses points in my book.

03-11-2009, 12:57 PM

ralph wiggum

The Dominican Republic lost again to noted baseball juggernaut The Netherlands last night, and are now eliminated from the tournament.

When they beat the DR the first time, I wondered if maybe they brought Bert Blyleven out of retirement to pitch.